swingarm pivot bolt service

[Nelly]

Hi,

Has anyone carried out the swingarm pivot bolt service?
I was going to do it in the next few weeks. After looking at the Haynes manual it looks like a pretty time consuming job. I have the skills required to do it but I am lacking in time. According to the book it necessitates
Rear wheel, rear hugger, chain guard and suspension removal. Just to start the actual task of inspection and lubrication.

I want to clean and grease the pivot bolt and was hoping that someone had a slightly less time intensive method?

Nelly:thumbup:

PS What ever happened to grease nipples on swingarms?

 

[FZ6771]

It's not hard to do, it takes about 2 hours. But it will make a huge differance in handling. On both of my FZ6's there was little to no crease on the pivot bolt and bearings. You can buy a expensive aftermarket shock, but if you don't lube the swingarm you are wasting you money.

 

[Nelly]

Thanks for that, did you remove all of the items I mentioned or just knock it through?
What grease did you use?

Cheers
Nelly

 

[Dennis in NH]

How often are you supposed to do this service?

So this just makes it easier for the swing arm to go up /down -- i.e., take bumps and work with the rear shock?

What a pain.

Thanks,

Dennis

 

[FZ6771]

Thanks for that, did you remove all of the items I mentioned or just knock it through?
What grease did you use?

Cheers
Nelly

Yes, you will have to remove all the items mentioned. and i used Bel-Ray waterproof grease.

 

[Nelly]

How often are you supposed to do this service?

So this just makes it easier for the swing arm to go up /down -- i.e., take bumps and work with the rear shock?

What a pain.

Thanks,

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Its a 30,000 mile (50,000k) service requirement. My bike has 20,000k on it. I ride mainly in the rain (ireland for ya). I want to do it purely for preventative maintenance. My FZ6 has always been lacking in factory grease. Look at the state of my bars when I lubed my clutch and throttle cabbles. This is probably down to my riding conditions to an extent.
A few people have had head bearings issues due to poor factory lubrication.

I don't know if its possible to do it by removing the rear wheel, and knocking a long drift all the way through the pivot bolt? Thus still having the swingarm in situ? I have managed to do this on previous bikes.

I will keep you posted and take some photos as I do the job.

Nelly

 

[Dennis in NH]

Hi Dennis,

Its a 30,000 mile (50,000k) service requirement. My bike has 20,000k on it. I ride mainly in the rain (ireland for ya). I want to do it purely for preventative maintenance. ...

I will keep you posted and take some photos as I do the job.

Nelly

Pictures would be great for me and anyone else who reaches 30K miles.

Thanks for the info.

Dennis

 

[FZ6771]

Pictures would be great for me and anyone else who reaches 30K miles.

Thanks for the info.

Dennis

I wouldn't wait till 30,000 miles, I checked mine at around 5,000 miles when I Installed a Penske shock and their was no grease on the pivot bolt or bearings just rust.

 

[deeptekkie]

Exactly what I've been thinking: If these bearings are so needful of occasional lubrication, (like the steering head or crown bearings as well), why didn't they just fit a cheap little grease fitting there?
Of my six previous bikes, the only bike I ever had to replace swingarm bearings on was a Suzuki dirt bike which I absolutely tortured and abused every single day that I rode it, (and often mostly submerged it for long long periods of time - riding in a creek). I have never had to replace steering head bearings on any previous bike. IMHO: The problem with the steering head bearings is water can get in but not out.

 

[Dennis in NH]

I wouldn't wait till 30,000 miles, I checked mine at around 5,000 miles when I Installed a Penske shock and their was no grease on the pivot bolt or bearings just rust.

Oh shoot. I wonder what a local mechanic would charge for this service. I await the pictures and the instructions to do this.

Dennis

 

[FZ1inNH]

Oh shoot. I wonder what a local mechanic would charge for this service. I await the pictures and the instructions to do this.

Dennis

A 6-pack of Sam's will suffice at the Busted Knuckle Garage! Not like I'm "unfamiliar" with your FZ6!

 

[chuckfz6ryder]

A 6-pack of Sam's will suffice at the Busted Knuckle Garage! Not like I'm "unfamiliar" with your FZ6!

Nice to know. I've got a few things I'd like to do, but would feel more comfortable with another set of eyes watching.

 

[Norbert]

I just finished my swingarm maintenance. The amazing thing is:
I DIDN'T HAVE TO REMOVE MY EXHAUST!!!
This will save hours of time! Well, now that I got it figured out, it'll save me hours NEXT time.

I took the lower assembly off the rear shock. The grease in the roller bearings was totally dry. All that was left looked like hard cheese. I scraped the cheese out and put some Mobil 1 Synthetic Grease in there. I kept the lower shock assembly disassembled for the swingarm maintenance.

The swingarm pivot nut is 27mm. I didn't have that, and I didn't feel like waiting for one to ship online. The autoparts store had one, but it was 12 sided. F00k that! Those 12 sided sockets will round out your bolts.
I went to Sears and got a 1 1/16 socket. No big diff from 27mm.
See?
1 1/16 inch = 1.0625 inch
27mm = 1.063 inch
It's a difference of one-thousandth of an inch.

After breaking the torque for the pivot nut, I braced the fork with a rear stand. I then wrapped a towel/rag around my exhaust. I didn't want it to get scraped up. (I'm pretty sure it didn't.) I also zip tied the chain and the rear brake out of the way. When I pulled out the pivot shaft, the whole swingarm didn't come crashing down. It moved maybe an inch. No worries! Also, it's very light.

Inspecting the pivot shaft, I saw dried lube and some corrosion. I couldn't remove it. I saw milky, lumpy lube, and not much of it. The worst part was the smell! I would describe it as "WHALE OIL." speeew....
Well that whale oil sucked at doing its job, so thanks for nothing, Yamaha.:Flip:

Here's how I avoided taking off the exhaust: I maneuvered the swingarm to be at an angle. Imagine the red circles as the dust covers. The red dotted line is the "plane" of the swingarm.

The left dust cover poked near my left rear set.

The right dust cover was resting on the metal part of the frame that's above the exhaust. It's near where the bracket that holds the overflow/drain tubes are, close to the right rear set. I had to move some of the drain tubes out of the way in order to get more space to work there.

From the left side, I was able to pull out the left dust cover (lots of crap in there, yuck) and then the metal spacer (really an inner tube.) That thing was bone dry. I checked out the left bearing as well. No grease at all. Not even cheese! I was able to clean it all up and re-grease. I put everything back in and started working on the right side.

For the right side, I had much less room. But all I needed to do was remove and clean the right dust cover and clean and re-grease the bearing. It was a tight fit, but I got it done. Moving the drain tubes out of the way really helps. I have small hands, too.

So there you have it. I haven't gone out for a test ride. I still have to do my wheel alignment. Plus other stuff.

I hope this makes the job easier! If you don't re-grease your rear shock and swingarm pivot, you're just riding around with cheese and whale oil.

 

[abraxas]

Ok, i just did my swingarm as part of the rebuild.

IT IS ESSENTIAL MAINTENANCE.

Back to the idea that nothing can leak during shipping, all you guys would want more grease in there than i found.

Not hard really, have hammer and a piece of wood handy. Get the manual page out, the way the shock connects to the swingarm ... well it's odd. And when i first tackled it, it was STUCK, quite badly.

But a fairly easy job all told, and seeing as i didn't have to take the exhaust off, i should have done it a lot sooner than i did!!

 

[brad81987]

Has anyone investigated whether it'd be feasible to install a grease zerk on the pivot tube? Would certainly make the job much easier.

 

[Tom24GR]

Hey guys I'm planning to do this to my bike and was wondering whether I would be able to support the bike with the center stand alone. Obviously cuz the swingarm is coming off I can't use a rear stand but will the center stand keep my bike upright (since its mounted to the frame)?

thanks in advance.

 

[meadeam]

Somebody here will be able to tell you exactly how to do it, but I would shy away from the center stand alone since by design it allows the bike to rock fore and aft. You probably should invest in or devise a lift. Something as simple as a set of jack stands under the foot pegs could work.

 

[Gary in NJ]

The center stand is independent of the swingarm, you will have no problem doing this maintenance procedure using the center stand. Would it be safer to put the bike on a stand and lock the front wheel into position? Yes, of course. But if you don't have such a contraption, then the center stand it is. There isn't a lot (or any) motion required that would put the center stand over center (forward and aft movement) from it's down and locked position . Most of the force inputs will be from side-to-side, so you shouldn't upset the balance of the center stand. Do not use a metal hammer to remove the swingarm bolt - you'll destroy the bearings. Use a dead-blow hammer and a brass drift pin or wooden dowel.

 

[Tom24GR]

The center stand is independent of the swingarm, you will have no problem doing this maintenance procedure using the center stand. Would it be safer to put the bike on a stand and lock the front wheel into position? Yes, of course. But if you don't have such a contraption, then the center stand it is. There isn't a lot (or any) motion required that would put the center stand over center (forward and aft movement) from it's down and locked position . Most of the force inputs will be from side-to-side, so you shouldn't upset the balance of the center stand. Do not use a metal hammer to remove the swingarm bolt - you'll destroy the bearings. Use a dead-blow hammer and a brass drift pin or wooden dowel.

Thanks! I'll do this service it seems pretty straightforward, especially with the whole stand problem out of the way. I have a grease gun with some WD-40 Branded lithium waterproof grease- this should be good right? The manual says "lithium soap based" but Im assuming that just means lithium grease.

 

[Gary in NJ]

I have been using marine grade synthetic grease on both dirt and street bikes for the last 40 years. I’ve yet to find a frozen bearing or stuck bushing.